News on Twitter Marketing, according to ClickZ: insights from Mike Isaac at AllThingsD, since it was always their intention to try out new names for the feature, it’s about time for the adjustment.

New “Like” or “Star” options are now being tested by Twitter to replace “Favorite” for tweets.

Appearing in the top right corner of a tweet, both “Like” and “Star” uses the traditional star icon.

Favoriting tweets reveal users’ preference for that particular tweet, in addition to storing them in a user’s Favorites list.

All the same, favoriting a tweet is the counterpart of Liking a post on Facebook or giving an update a +1 on Google. It’s an endorsement by one user for the tweet of another.

It’s an appealing idea of developing this into an opportunity of monetization for Twitter. Their Promoted Tweets , a step towards another social ad option is similar to Facebook’s Sponsored Stories. Or, Twitter may start displaying the number of Likes/Stars within ads, a la Google+.

In the mobile advertising field, social companies try to defeat each other, with Google and Facebook being the major competitors. Twitter may be considering another advertising option based on user endorsements. Perhaps to say a user “Likes” something is more attractive as an ad than to say it was a Favorite? It works for Facebook!

News on Social Marketing, according to Social Media Examiner: since mobile apps aid in managing your social media activities and help you maintain your reputation, here are 6 free smartphone apps to keep your business active on social media.

#1: Google Currents

A one-stop shop for various sources of information can now be enjoyed with the use of Google Currents app, wherein these sources can be added similar to an updated RSS feed. What’s trending on the web can now be viewed through Google Currents.

#2: Flipboard

Flipboard, the ultimate app for finding content is similar to Google Currents in choosing sources of information and is different in a way that it allows you to connect your social networks to not only share but also see what is happening on your connected social sites, giving you the ability to interact via the app.

#3: Plume

Plume is an alternative for Twitter’s TweetDeck, allowing you to manage multiple Twitter accounts and helps shorten links with a click on the drop-down menu.

#4: Postling

Postling is an ideal app allowing you to create content that you can post directly from the app to your blog which is also a social-friendly app.

#5: Buffer App

Buffer App allows you to easily share articles, photos, videos and status updates to various social networks and keeps your social media marketing focused and consistent.

#6: Facebook App

This app is the best way to use Facebook from your phone for an easy viewing as if you were on the site. This is the ultimate way to connect with people within your online communities.

News on Facebook Marketing, according to CNN Money: as NEW YORK (CNNMoney) reported Facebook’s second earnings as a public company, investors started to grow.

An almost $1.3 billion sales for its third quarter is a boost up of 32% sales compared to last year. But this quarter earnings face a big problem with tax bill related to the company’s equity compensation for employees. It’s $431 million income tax provision for the quarter, representing an eye-popping 116% effective tax rate.

Although Facebook’s shares drop 3% immediately following the announcement, there’s a rapid growth of over 21% in early trading Wednesday.

With 14% Facebook’s ad revenue coming from mobile in the third quarter, Its mobile customer base reached 604 million active users increasing to 61% from last year.

Generally, monthly active users increased 26% over the year to merely over 1 billion. Facebook pulled in $1.1 billion serving ads to those users — up 36% from last year.

A Problem for Zynga is Facebook’s problem as well. Zynga accounted for 14% of Facebook’s revenue in the first six months of 2012, including payment processing fees, direct advertising, and outside ads shown on pages generated by Zynga apps.